hair/particles on a material
Yes. But use Vertex group for that as usual
You need two vertex groups: one for the base mesh (should be empty), and one for the cutter (should be filled).

The tricky part is that vertex groups merged not by name, but by its index. So the first vertex group of the first mesh will be merged with the first vertex group of the second mesh, the second vertex group will be merged with the second, etc... And it doesn't matter that names your vertex groups have.
Once you get the &quot;combined&quot; vertex group, set it to the Density setting